CONVICTIONS for racist attacks have shot up in the West Midlands, disturbing new figures have revealed.

CONVICTIONS for racist attacks have shot up in the West Midlands, disturbing new figures have revealed.

The number of people convicted for offences of racially aggravated violence has increased by 60 per cent since 2002, in the region served by West Midlands Police.

The rise has been even more dramatic in the West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police areas.

One MP today blamed the violence on divisions between communities which were created by the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001, and the 7-7 attacks in the UK in 2005.

Khalid Mahmood (Lab, Perry Barr) claimed: "We have seen the BNP and other far-right groups take advantage of these divisions.

"There is also a lot of strong feeling about immigration and asylum seekers, and misinformation coming from parts of the media.

" It doesn't surprise me if incidents of violence have risen, but I don't think the situation is as bad as these figures seem to suggest."

The figures were published by the Ministry of Justice in the House of Commons.

They show the number of offenders found guilty in court of racially aggravated violence for each police for area, between 2002 and 2006.

Convictions in the area served by West Midlands Police increased from 229 in 2002 to 371 in 2006 – an increase of 62 per cent.

The rise was even more dramatic in the area covered by West Mercia Police, where the number of convictions increased from 52 to 126, up by 142 per cent.

Convictions in the Warwickshire Police area rose from 27 to 91, an increase of 237 per cent.

And in the Staffordshire Police area, convictions rose from 57 to 77, up by 35 per cent.

Racially aggravated offences were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and came into force on 30 September 1998.

The Act created new offences of racially aggravated assault, criminal damage, harassment and public order. For each of these new offences, the maximum penalty is higher than the maximum for the basic offence without the element of racial aggravation.